Pope prays at tomb of John Paul II

Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has prayed before the tomb of Pope John Paul II on the eighth anniversary of the beloved pontiff's death in what the Vatican said was evidence of Francis' "profound spiritual continuity" with Popes past.

In his three weeks as pontiff, Pope Francis has jolted the Catholic Church with several gestures that broke with papal tradition, including renouncing certain liturgical vestments, choosing to live in the Vatican hotel rather than the papal apartments, and washing the feet of a Muslim woman during a Holy Thursday ritual re-enacting Jesus Christ's washing of his apostles' feet.

Pope Francis prays at the tomb of Pope John Paul II on the anniversary of his death. Photo: AFP

But Pope Francis has also visited with his immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and spoken on the phone with him at least three times. And on Monday, he visited the tomb of St Peter, the first pontiff, which is located in the necropolis underneath St Peter's Basilica.

On Tuesday, he waited until the basilica was closed to the general public to visit the tomb of Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pope who died in 2005.

The tomb is located in the St Sebastian chapel, just inside the entrance of the basilica. Pope Francis also prayed briefly by the nearby tombs of Popes John XXIII and Pius X.

"As with the visit yesterday to the tomb of St Peter and the Vatican grottoes, this evening's visit to the basilica expresses the profound spiritual continuity of the Popes' petrine ministry, which Pope Francis lives and feels intensely, as he has shown repeatedly with his phone calls to his predecessor Benedict XVI," the Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said.

Traditionalist Catholics have been devastated by some of Pope Francis' gestures, which they have seen as a rejection primarily of efforts by Pope Benedict XVI to revive the pre-Vatican II tradition of the church, including much of the pomp of the papacy.

Pope John Paul made then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio a cardinal in 2001. Bergoglio was elected Pope on March 13 and took the name Francis, the first time a pontiff has chosen that name.